{"id":45101,"date":"2018-08-30T13:53:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T20:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=45101"},"modified":"2018-08-30T13:53:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T20:53:41","slug":"when-ai-meets-your-shopping-experience-it-knows-what-you-buy-and-what-you-ought-to-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/when-ai-meets-your-shopping-experience-it-knows-what-you-buy-and-what-you-ought-to-buy\/","title":{"rendered":"When AI meets your shopping experience it knows what you buy \u2013 and what you ought to buy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nWhether you do your shopping online or in store, your retail experience is the latest battleground for the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning revolution.<\/p>\n

Major Australian retailers have begun to realise that they have a lot to gain from getting their AI strategy right, with one currently recruiting for a\u00a0Head of AI and Machine Learning<\/a>supported by a\u00a0team of data scientists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newly developed Woolworths division\u00a0WooliesX<\/a>\u00a0aims to bring together<\/a>\u00a0a diverse group of teams, including technology, customer digital experience, e-commerce, financial services and digital customer experience.<\/p>\n

All about crunching the data<\/strong><\/h4>\n

To understand the opportunities and threats for all major retailers, it\u2019s useful to understand why artificial intelligence is back on the agenda. Two crucial things have changed since the initial forays into AI decades ago: data and computing power.<\/p>\n

Computing power is easy to see. The smartphone in your hand has\u00a0millions of times more computational power<\/a>\u00a0than the bulky computers of decades ago. Companies have access to almost unlimited computing power with which to train their AI algorithms.<\/p>\n

The other critical ingredient is the scale and richness of data available, especially in retail.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence systems \u2013 especially learning techniques such as machine learning \u2013 thrive on large, rich data sets. When\u00a0fed appropriately<\/a>\u00a0with this data, these systems discover trends, patterns, and correlations that no human analyst could ever hope to discover manually.<\/p>\n

These machine learning approaches automate data analysis, enabling users to create a model that can then make useful predictions about other similar data.<\/p>\n

Why retail is suited for AI<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The rapidity of AI deployment in different fields depends on a few critical factors: retail is particularly suitable for a few reasons.<\/p>\n

The first is the ability to test and measure. With appropriate safeguards, retail giants can deploy AI and test and measure consumer response. They can also directly measure the effect on their bottom line fairly quickly.<\/p>\n

The second is the relatively small consequences of a mistake. An AI agent landing a passenger aircraft cannot afford to make a mistake because it might kill people. An AI agent deployed in retail that makes millions of decisions every day can afford to make\u00a0some<\/em>mistakes, as long as the overall effect is positive.<\/p>\n

Some smart robot technology is already happening in retail with\u00a0Nuro.AI partnering with grocery behemoth Kroger<\/a>\u00a0to deliver groceries to customers\u2019 doorsteps in the United States.
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